ANR:

First Talkie film of Telugu Cinema 'Bhakta Prahlada' was released in 1931. Akkineni Nageswara Rao's (ANR) first film was released in 1941. It shows that the Telugu Cinema followed him except for the first 10 years. Knowing about Dr. Akkineni is like reading the encyclopedia of Telugu Cinema.
There is only one era for Telugu cinema as for as the Telugu Cinema is concerned. That is called Akkineni era. He gave new dimensions to the dances with his variety steps and at one time, people used throng to theaters to see his magical steps in his musical blockbusters.
Akkineni's image is not restricted just to Andhra Pradesh alone. His characters do have Indian wide exposure. His 'Devdas' belongs to Bengali state, 'Kalidas' belongs to north, 'Tukaram' and 'Kora Gumbhara' belongs to Maha Rastra, 'Jayadeva' role belongs to Orissa and 'Kshetrayya' role belongs to Andhra Pradesh. By acting in films having background of various regions of India, he truly showed the national integrity and unity in diversity.
He is liberally graced with all the awards an actor can get. He is the recipient of Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the greatest honor for an actor in this country. He is also the recipient of Raghupati Venkayya Award, the best award for any actor at state level. He also grabbed the Kalidasu award granted by MP Government at national level. Not to mention the NTR National award given by our state government. He is recently been appointed as an adviser to the State Film Development Corporation. Though, it was an official position for ANR, he was voluntarily helping the film industry in various ways since ages. He was the first Telugu hero to migrate from Madras (now known as Chennai) to Hyderabad to develop film industry in AP. He laid the foundation stone for Hyderabad Telugu cinema by announcing that all his producers have to produce their films in AP, if ANR has to act in them. He gave a five-point plan to state government about how to improve the Telugu Cinema industry in AP in 1963.
Since there were no studios in AP at that time, ANR has put in his hard-earn money to build the glorious Annapurna studios. After seeing the deterioration in the number of films getting produced in AP, he incorporated an award for the best film to encourage the filmmakers. State Government is presenting Akkineni Nageswara Rao award every year. ANR never cared for commercial success when it comes to producing films on his own banner, Annapurna Pictures. He did two noble films, Sudi Gundalu and Maro Prapancham. These two films flopped as Andhra people couldn't appreciate them. Otherwise, there would have been more message-oriented films in the future.
Akkineni Nageswara Rao complete his 81st year today (20th September 2005).

Akkineni Nageswara Rao
Akkineni Nageswara Rao known as ANR. He is one of the first fully commercial Telugu Cinema heroes. His works includes mythological, folk tale, social, adventure and drama.He is also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. He is the first person to cause the shift of Telugu film industry to Andhra Pradesh from Chennai, Tamilnadu in an attempt to bring together the mother tongue of industry and industry itself. Soon after the move to Hyderabad, Nageswara Rao founded his own production house, Annapoorna Studios located in Banjara Hill.His younger son Nagarjuna is also an actor inTelugu and Hindi films.His elder son Venkat is taking care of Annapurna Studios. He is a film producer. Recently he acted in a film called "chukkallo chandrudu" with young hero Siddhardh.
He is specifically remembered in Andhra Pradesh for his biographical roles like Vipranarayana, Chakradhari, Tukaram, Kalidasu, Jayadeva, Tenali Ramakrishna, Kshethrayya etc. Moreover he is popular as hero of popular fiction (Novels) which were made into films e.g. Doctor Chakravarthi, Prema Nagar, Devadasu, Secretary etc.Date of Birth: September 20, 1923.Highest Award: Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1990 for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.Related: Akkineni Nageswrara Rao College, Gudiwada.
http://www.anrcollege.edu/